This is the sad story of a dog with a passion for chasing sticks. He refused to chase balls – it had to be sticks. Unfortunately this is a very dangerous past-time. We regularly see dogs at this practice who have been injured when a stick penetrates their mouth or throat. Sticks can do considerable damage and can sometimes break off inside the neck causing further problems. The broken fragments of stick can travel large distances in the tissues of the neck, resulting in serious injury.

In this case a 20 cm long piece of stick penetrated the back of the dog’s throat and then travelled down the neck over a period of only an hour or so into the mediastinum, which is the tissue between the lungs. The mediastinum contains many vital structures such as the heart and its major vessels.

Under general anaesthetic we were able to retrieve the stick through a small incision at the base of the neck. A check with a special scope showed no damage to the windpipe or oesophagus.

Sadly the dog died soon after surgery, probably due to damage to the structures in the mediastinum, possibly to the heart itself.

The series of images shows the stick being removed. The incision is at the base of the neck and the dog's head is to the right, under the surgical drape.